Your source for rants, raves and useful information

Rants and Raves

I’ve seen so many people that have gone through health issues, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on healthcare, just to have the problems come back. Our healthcare system keeps us reliant on them. Keeps us down. It doesn’t fix anything. Nothing’s cured. In hundreds of years how the FUCK is cancer still around?

Monsanto is another issue, poisoning us with preservatives and toxins. Anything natural is expensive because this corporate greed giant has the monopoly.

You know that moment when everything seems like it’s going great, and then the girl stalks your Facebook, then overthinks and overreacts by jumping ship because she’s got feelings? Or dating someone who jumps into a relationship without being ready and without thinking about it? Yea. I know that feeling too. Though I digress.

So all this comes from a girl I just dated for a short time. We hit it off immediattely. A lot in common, great conversations, great sex, we had a lot of fun together. We spent almost a full 2.5 weeks together. Then the problem weekend arrived. I get a text on Friday saying we should take it slow. Then Sunday I get a text saying we should just be friends. Now without going into every little detail, she wanted more romance/courting and more little nice gestures. Which personally I see as skewed and ignorant to an extent. For a few reasons. Everyone has a different idea of romance and courting for one. And I can’t fucking read minds. It was also never discussed. The other thing that’s retarded about that. She had her kid every evening M-F, so the main times we could do anything were weekends. First and Second weekend we had dates. Third weekend, I had plans from months ago and I even invited her. Sure, she brought me over food 2 times, and took me to a baseball game (which btw, I hate baseball. My nice gesture was going with, point and case, some people don’t realize a nice gesture). I brought her food once, bought her tickets on the second date, bought her food a couple times and invited her to go to theater in the near future. In either case, it becomes too much of a comparison and too much of an expectation. I’ll give you the world, being my time and my priority. My personality isn’t to give you random THINGS. It’s to give you my love. Funny thing about it too, she would complain about having shitty friends who just get drunk, act immature and don’t commit. Then has the balls to say she doesn’t feel special and just feels like friends when I am the one to give priority and a positive influence.

OMG. He’s got aspects of an ex, I’ve gotta run away. OMG. I have feelings. RUN! I need to focus on myself. I need to focus on my daughter. You don’t give me xyz. All bullshit. All excuses. If you like being around someone for any reason, be around them. Oh, and as long as I’m on that subject of ranting. Guy friends. You’re naive if you think they aren’t just keeping you around as an option. MOST guys will keep hot girls around as options. So if you’re a good looking girl who’s got a lot of guy friends. Don’t expect any guy worthwhile to be comfortable with that. While we may be confident with ourselves and you, we know guys.

Bottom line. If you like someone, don’t run away. SIT DOWN and DISCUSS expectations. Most good guys aren’t gonna become your friend right away after a relationship. It’s going to take healing time.

Dating these days is complicated, stressful and impossible to understand. I’m always wondering, should I say this, should I text that, should I call, am I being needy. I mean fuck, you can’t be yourself anymore without scaring them away.

Personally, if I like you right off the bat and enjoy being around you, I’d rather date you and only you until we determine it’s going to work out or not. Dating more than one person at a time doesn’t make sense to me It’s harder to keep track of who the person you like really is, makes it harder to remember things they’ve told you, etc.

I can’t stand how it’s so impossible to tell the outcome. It’s all like a foreign language. If he/she says you’re sweet, but he/she’s still thinking about it, then what the fuck?

Some of this I blame on the guys who use girls for sex. The idea of playing with emotions isn’t appealing because I know the feeling all too well. Downside of falling fast, and being somewhat OCD.

People always tell me to “focus on yourself”, “do what makes you happy”. Well what if I told you I was happy before starting to date someone, the fact that I get down from wondering where it’s going to go is situational and is typically an emotional response that is engrained in some of us, if not all of us.

I keep seeing all these posts about how iPhones are for smart people, and how Android is for poor people. There’s some flawed logic in these kinds of posts. For one. iPhone is simple, just like their users want. They don’t want to deal with customization. Personally, I’d take customization, a removable battery, and an SD card over a phone that’s supposedly secure and simple from the factory. I want to be able to control my phone. This isn’t how an iPhone user thinks.

My theory on why more of the successful and creative types use iPhone is that they just aren’t interested in the above. They don’t care that they can use an Android as a computer replacement, because their iPhone can make calls, send texts and surf the web. Though just because a person is successful doesn’t mean they are smart.

If anything, I would make an opposite claim that iPhone users aren’t as smart in the technical aspect of Android users. Because there’s more to Android, there’s more to figure out, more nooks and crannies for the ability to unlock unknown possibilities.

Plus, the fact is, with Android, users don’t have to let ONE company dictate what they get out of a phone. Why? Because there are TONS of Android options in all shapes, sizes, prices and customizability. And that to me, is smart.

What the photo industry has evolved into is pathetic and sickening. It seems to be a bunch of unoriginal copycats setting the bar to those doing the hiring that results in at least one of the following: Long hours and no-low pay, Everyone expecting a lot from trade, photographers giving away photos without watermarks. This is NOT okay.

As a photographer, you SHOULD NOT:

Give away photos without your logos (Give away means for free or less than $200/hour)

Be willing to work long hours for free

Be willing to work long hours for less than $50/hour

Depends on experience

Shoot on auto

Not edit your photos originally

Copying makes you a piece of shit

As a person hiring, you SHOULD NOT:

Expect photos without a watermark unless you’re paying very well

Expect 5 hours of work for less than $200/hour

NEVER tell a legitimate photographer with a legitimate backing you don’t need them.

This makes you a douche.

Since when are good photos a bad thing?

There’s never too much coverage of your event when it’s legitimate.

Expect anything without paying for it

Be fucking grateful a company wants to cover your event if they reached out to you.

Bottom line, if you can’t do it, and are going to get quality images in one way or another, shut the fuck up and let the photographers do what they do best.

Technology is all around us. Why would you reject it? Phone calls are outdated and inefficient at handling multiple requests at once. Use technology to your benefit. Text, Email, use a ticket system like OSTicket or DeskPro. Personally, I’m less likely to deal with a business that doesn’t use up to date tech. Get with the times. The longer you reject it, the more you’re gonna have to spend in the end to set it up or learn.

Peace. Love. Unity. Respect. Funny, no one I know who uses the term (or is in the EDM industry) fits the bill one bit. So far, the EDM industry has proved how society has failed. No one shows any real love, unity or respect, and it makes me want to not be peaceful. Rather, they show the aspects of being self centered, ignorant and unreliable. Take a reality check EDMr’s. Try being good people for once. Follow through, be honest, and do something with your life other than getting high and drunk.

Oh, and all you promo companies. Try actually offering customer service. Respond to emails, texts, calls, whatever it may be.

Speeding is a relative term. Reasonable and Prudent is the common term. I’m going to go ahead and say that impeding traffic is more dangerous than speeding. Why? There’s nothing wrong with going fast, we have cars that are meant for the street that are capable of 200mph, and many of our streets could handle cars doing 75mph through them, while freeways can easily handle speeds around 120mph. Why don’t we allow this? Well, for one, most people are too stupid to be able to do this safely. Second, too many people don’t pay attention to their surroundings and impede the flow of traffic. By Definition, traffic is “vehicles moving on a road or public highway,” therefore if 2,3,4 or 5 vehicles want to go 100mph on the freeway, slower vehicles in the lane of travel (left lane) are impeding traffic. So here’s a note to society. Be more intelligent. Traffic jams only exist because people are doing something wrong. Everyone just hit the gas, pay attention, and let’s abolish speed limits.

Following Directions

Okay, this is definitely one thing that I see a lot of. People either can’t or don’t read/follow directions. I get asked a question and I answer it with a short set of instructions hyper-linked to a longer set. And people still seem to ask a question I covered in the longer set.

I can get the not wanting to read insanely long documents, but when you’re handed a step by step with screenshots, c’mon.

Or even more simply, I tell someone, don’t do this. And they do it anyway. As a child, this is part of the growing process. As an adult, no.

Knowing how to use the technology you have to use every day

No matter what your profession is, you should know at least the basics of every program you use on a daily basis. You should know the basics of the consistent policies, for example: If your password changes every 90 days, you should know how to change your password and update it in the necessary locations.

Gaining and Using Common Sense

This one is simple. Just use your brain. I can’t count how many times that I get confirmation questions. I’ll say, click through the prompts (Example, all prompts might say next, ok or done) and people get confused. It’s not rocket science. Some things you can figure out. I once messaged a guy who asked for my help using our remote control software, and it says my name, and he didn’t respond because he didn’t recognize it. Again, common sense.

Paying Attention

Ever have someone consistently ask you for something that’s right in front of them? Yea, so have I. It’s annoying. Once in a while is fine, as long as it doesn’t happen all the time.

Timely Responses

In my opinion. The lack of a timely response can be killer. Ever heard the saying strike while the iron is hot? This applies to SMS, Phone Calls, Facebook Messages and Email. During your business hours, the majority of your response times should be no longer than 2-3 hours, and this is if you’re busy. During off hours, 12 hours could be acceptable depending on your position. If you face the public, you should be responding ASAP. If a CEO of a company with 400 employees can answer an email in a timely manner, then the rest of you have no excuse.

We have so many stupid issues in the USA, it’s ridiculous. It seems that out economy is built to help people fail. Not the other way around. Healthcare and Corrections being two major ones that need fixing. Let’s look at healthcare in this post. If you don’t have insurance, you can bet that the second you have anything go wrong with you, you’re going to pay an astronomical and ludicrous amount of money for something that doesn’t actually cost that much. (http://on.wsj.com/1uBcafP). You’re expected to pay these 2,3,4,5x marked up prices. Prices high enough that it would be hard to pay making $40,000 per year, let alone if you’re already in poverty or struggling with bills. So what if you have health insurance? Well, if you’re young and in good health, you might luck out in paying $250-300/month for it, with a $350-500 deductible, and 30-$60 copays. Here’s the thing though, one ER visit with nothing but an ultrasound, one Urgent Care Visit, and one PCP visit WITH health insurance, has cost me a little over $800, not counting medications. This is out of pocket expense, of Co-Pays and the deductible. I mean, all in all, this is probably a low end of the spectrum, but still a very large amount to pay considering I pay $3000/year in health insurance. Which is quite low. I know someone who pays $800/month. That’s highway robbery.

So what’s the fix? How do we force a change?

While I’m not much of an expert in the politics or the massively complicated mess that is healthcare and/or insurance, at a simple level, two things need to be done.

1. Healthcare should not be a for profit venue. The hospitals should only be allowed to charge what needs to be charged to keep up to par with training, supplies, cleanliness, research, etc.

2. Healthcare Insurance companies need to be forced to become affordable. Something like a flat fee for unlimited healthcare for LEGAL citizens. $150/month for full coverage, no deductible, minimal to no copays. Then the government can require every person to have insurance. That would make much more sense than the current system which requires insurance and the companies are raising prices to be more money hungry.

These are the proposed fixes, but the way to get them into action is a little different.

The US government needs to skip over the whole rights thing and take a lesson from the dictator handbook. Insurance companies that fight it get shut down. This needs to be fixed now, not in 10 years. Look at human history, things don’t change until laws are broken, which means our laws aren’t working. End goal, affordable (for everyone) healthcare that’s still top tier.